Already, But Not Yet
If Jesus has won the victory over sin, suffering, and death, why is it that we still sin, suffer, and die? To understand this seeming contradiction, we must recognize the“already, but not yet ”tension of the gospel.
Keep At It!
They know Tom Dotson pretty well in the prisons of Michigan. They ought to. He spent more than a decade behind bars.
Power Outage
The silence awakened me at 5:30 one morning. There was no gentle whir of fan blades, no reassuring hum from the refrigerator downstairs. A glance out the window confirmed that a power outage had left everyone in our neighborhood without electricity just as they would be preparing for work.
A Matter Of Taste
Two cockroaches decided to visit their favorite restaurant. While the larger of the two was enjoying his meal, the smaller one said,“You wouldn’t believe the house I just left. It was spotless. The lady had to be a cleanaholic. Everything was immaculate—the sink, the counter, the floors. You couldn’t find a crumb anywhere.”The other cockroach stopped his munching, looked with some annoyance at his companion, and said,“Do you have to talk like that while I’m eating?"
Both Glad And Sad
There’s an old legend about three men who were crossing a desert on horseback at night. As they approached a dry creek bed, they heard a voice commanding them to dismount, pick up some pebbles, put them in their pockets, and not look at them till the next morning. The men were promised that if they obeyed they would be both glad and sad. After they did as they were told, the three mounted their horses and went on their way.
The Pursuit Of Happiness
In 1948, Life magazine brought together a group of labor-union representatives, industrial leaders, university scholars, and clergy to discuss what the framers of the United States Constitution had in mind when they referred to“the pursuit of happiness.”They agreed that steady work under good conditions at a living wage was absolutely essential. Some included the values of racial fairness, unselfishness, and integrity.
God Forgives Disobedience
I’ll never forget the painful lesson I learned in early childhood about disobedience. My father, who had been mowing our lawn, interrupted his work to go shopping. He left the push mower standing near some flowers and ordered me not to touch it while he was gone. But I disobeyed him and gave it a push. To my shock, the mower veered and knocked over several flowers.
